Vehicle impoundment regulations as a means of reducing traffic violations and road accidents in Israel

Road crashes are a major cause of death and serious injuries in many countries and extract a high cost on society (Tay 2003). A prevalent approach in many countries involves high levels of enforcement supported by intensive publicity campaigns (e.g., Tay 2005). Traffic laws sanctions tend to yield regional, short-term mild deterring effects (Hakkert et al. 2001; Sanderson and Cameron 1983) and are more effective when applied in temporal proximity to the actual violation (Yu and Williford 1995). Sanction severity appears to be of less consequence on short-term deterrence, sometimes yielding similar results for both strict and lenient sanctions, e.g., actual license revocation vs. suspended revocation, (DeYoung 1997; Siskind 1996; Watson 1998; Watson and Siskind 1997) fines vs. short time imprisonment (Martin, Annan, and Forst 1993).